The present invention is concerned with an improved method of destructively distilling comminuted mixtures of primarily organic waste materials, which includes paper, garbage, and other refuse material and reducing them to a useful, combustible friable char product, which can be mixed with coal particles, for example, and usefully burned by utility companies and the like to produce electrical power.
The method to be disclosed involves certain novel, useful and unobvious improvements in processes which have been proposed for converting organic waste material to a char material, such as the processes disclosed in U.S. Pat. Nos. 4,098,649; 4,123,332; and 4,308,103. The conversion of industrial and municipal waste by incinerating it in conventional incinerators and/or burying it in landfill areas is no longer viable for the future. The conventional incineration of the material releases fumes and smoke to the atmosphere which are objectionable, and cause pollution problems. Moreover, presently practiced incineration is expensive and does not result in the recovery of any useful products which can offset the cost of incineration. The burying of waste in landfill areas is also unsatisfactory in this society in view of the tremendous volumes of waste which are generated nationwide, and the scarcity of landfill areas which, afterward are no longer useful for most other purposes.
Prior art methods, such as the method disclosed in U.S. Pat. No. 4,098,649, have initially separated the trash into organic and inorganic materials. Principally, this division of the trash or refuse has resulted in the separation of the metals and glass, from organic materials such as paper, wood, rags, plastic, and vegetable matter.
It is the organic material which is treated in the process described in patent 4,098,649, and with which the present invention is concerned. As in the process described in U.S. Pat. No. 4,098,649, the organic material is initially shredded into small particles, and then passes through a drying station from which it is fed to a mixer-reactor for further processing of the material.